Nothing seems to be doing the job. They swarm back in more numbers after every fumigation....
COVER STORY
“Guarantee hai!” said the enthusiastic man, “You won’t have to worry about roaches for at least a couple of years.
One day later after Day One (it’s complicated): “They’re back!!!”
I see or don’t see dead roaches – that is the question. I have sprayed so many things to contain roaches frequently infesting my apartment that I think I have created some super roach species. Nothing seems to be doing the job. They swarm back in more numbers after every fumigation.
And then a friend recommended a ‘great exterminator’. The way this man was described would make one believe it was the Terminator himself. But even ex-Terminator was unable to do the job and the crawlies were back in no time. I have all but given up trying to get rid of the species that some say can survive moderate amounts of radiation and about 20 percent can even survive high atom bomb level radiation of about 10,000 rads.
While I was watching my favourite ghost hunter show, I heard the investigator say that a particular location was said to be haunted by the spirit of a dog. Apparently, the dog that died about a century ago still comes home. The thought of man’s best friend honouring this friendship even from the beyond had me reaching for the tissue, only to see a roach in the folds. It was watching the same show, and got to the tissue before me.
The show made me think if there are ghost dogs, then other living things can also return from the beyond. And then it struck me that fumigation was not working on the roaches because these were all ghosts. The ghosts of the dead roaches have returned to haunt me.
I shared this idea with my family and they smiled, but not in a good, positive way. More like a weird and worried way, convinced that too much exposure to fumigation had done something to my mind.
Why can’t roaches have ghosts? What if these roaches were not the ordinary ghosts that went to wherever dead roaches go? What if these were pestergeists?
The normal cockroaches die when you fumigate them, while the pestergeists return to ruin your life and pop out from the weirdest places. I have seen them on my laptop, in my bookcase and even inside the lid of my ballpen. I didn’t harm the ones found in my book as everyone has a right to education.
Anyway, returning to the topic, I decided to hold a ghost investigation. So, the next night found me with my camera, phone and recorder strategically placed in the dark house, and me lying on the floor with my magnifying glass and binoculars (couldn’t persuade my army connections to lend me the night googles but that is a whole new story. I guess I am on some list for this demand).
The binoculars were placed in front of the lens of my phone camera, and I used the magnifying glass to see the small targets.
Unlike the ghost hunting shows I could not persuade my family to leave, and this caused many interruptions. One of the kids came out to get water from the dispenser and switched the light on, and almost fainted seeing me crouching in one corner. I was livid; my stakeout had been compromised, and the crawlies scattered with the light. Now they knew where I was hiding.
Glaring at my kid, I motioned him to switch the light off and vacate the premises. A real ghost investigator knows not to speak too loudly when investigating a ghost. I don’t know why, because the ghost can probably hear everything you are saying – probably standing right next to you. But protocol demanded I stay silent.
As soon as the light was switched off, I found a new place. It was a painful experience; I banged into the sofa and then went straight into the fridge, banging my head and toe. I literally saw stars in the dark. I felt like Tom when he gets hurt. I couldn’t scream out in pain – professional ghost hunters don’t scream. I cursed in my mind and punched the fridge in the dark. This was a wrong decision, only adding to my injuries.
I took time-out, went to my room to rest for a while and tend to my injuries. And this was also a strategy, with my camera, camera phone, and Dictaphone recording, I was giving time to the pestergeists to be captured.
After 30 minutes, I slowly entered the room and managed to reach my spot without further injuries. And waited and waited…I woke up with a sudden jerk as something fell with a bang. I was fuzzy in the beginning but then creaked to an upright position from my spot. I peered into the watch and realised that my stakeout had lasted for two hours – I slept through most of it – and now I had enough sleep, I mean recording, to check and see if the ghost of the roach came out.
I switched the light on and saw that the lid of a pot was lying on the floor. Thinking the roaches were really out to prove their point, I picked it up and placed it in the cupboard, and gathered my equipment.
Quickly saving the videos from my camera and phone on my laptop, I was excited to see what I had caught. The video showed the time my kid had switched on the light and the roaches scattered around, one curious roach stopped and looked into the camera, and then decided to climb all over the lens. And then the light went off, and I can be heard banging into different things and mumbling. And then going off-camera, the sound of a door opening, and a light being switched off could be heard on the camera.
The atmosphere changed from the light from my room which could not be seen but the intensity of the darkness changed. One could make out the shadows against the even darker background. And then the weirdest thing happened. I was shocked and felt weird. A faint shadow passed in front of both cameras – twice. Once moving from left to right and then from right to left. This happened when I was in the other room.
Yikes, I thought my house was haunted.
At this point I was too scared to think about the pestergeists – I had more serious things to think about.
I must have watched the video a couple of 10 times – yes that is how confused I was. Did we have a haunting? I was excited and scared at the same time. I couldn’t wait to tell the rest of the family that we had an exciting guest in the house. The morning didn’t come fast enough.
Finally, everyone was awake – I didn’t sleep because of the excitement. And I made sure the family got up early. I made so much noise that it was probably difficult for them to continue sleeping and everyone was finally up by 7:30 am.
I told them about my night and the shadow caught on camera. There was a lot of interest and the video was seen several times and we were planning to do another stakeout that night. As we made the plans, I heard a small giggle from my left. I looked around to see my son giving me a fake, cheesy grin.
I asked him the reason for his cheeky grin. He said we would be wasting time hunting for the ghost. I told him that he was off our team. He said he didn’t believe in ghosts. We all began having a heated discussion on the pros and cons of believing in the supernatural.
He tried to calm us down and eventually achieved this. He said we had every right to believe what we wanted and he had no problem with it, but there was no ghost in the house as the shadow was him stealing in to get some snacks when I had gone to the other room.
Disappointed, I asked how he would explain the lid falling, and he said he had come in again when I was sleeping – which I vehemently denied – and had taken the lid off to get something out. And must have left it in a position that it fell.
I felt betrayed by my own flesh and blood; he had not only disproved the existence of the ghost in our house, but had also compromised the investigation. And I found out that he was awake all night eating junk food.
Well, so much for my investigation. But my exterminator came anyway and fumigated the house, promising that there would be no more creepy crawlies. And two weeks later I called him, “They’re back!”
The pestergeists are here to stay – and I have to deal with it.
